Among Hertzberg’s many endorsements, none from the metaphor police: Opinion

Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg is getting so many endorsements in his campaign for the California Senate, his press-release writer is running out of catchy ways to announce them.

Lovers of good wordplay should appreciate the headline on an October announcement: “Hertzberg nails down endorsement from carpenters.” And one on a November news release: Nurses “prescribe Hertzberg as ‘best choice’ for Valley Senate seat.”

But those are rare gems among other recent bulletins: Hertzberg “reels in” school employees’ endorsement (you were expecting a fishermen’s organization?), “sews up” a law enforcement association’s support (we were hoping for garment workers), “rakes in” communication workers’ backing (not, as the verb would suggest, gardeners).

The releases landing in our email box at a rate of 10 or more a month remind us of the radio guys reading the baseball scores and trying to find infinite synonyms for “defeated.”

We’d prefer to think Hertzberg chalks up the teachers’ endorsement, strikes a chord with musicians, and so forth.

Hertzberg is effectively using his reputation, earned in the Assembly (1996-2002), in civic activism and in business to secure formal backing from dozens of community leaders and groups well in advance of next June’s primary election to succeed Alex Padilla in the San Fernando Valley’s 18th Senate District election.

In an early look at campaign 2014, political analyst Allan Hoffenblum writes for the Fox & Hounds website that Hertzberg “has been endorsed by most everyone who is anyone within the state’s Democratic establishment. Hertzberg’s sole opponent is Republican Ricardo Benitez, a plumber and a member of the Sylmar Neighborhood Council. No contest here.”

The Daily News editorialized in June that it would be a shame if Hertzberg glides to victory without having his ideas tested by a tough campaign. Hertzberg responded quite reasonably, in a letter to the editor, that he is taking nothing for granted and “running an aggressive campaign that’s focused on putting forward big, bold ideas about how to fix our state.”

Obviously a lot of influential people like his style.

Just to show we can mix a metaphor with the best of them, we’d say Hertzberg is rounding up some sky-high expectations.